Dumb Luck
by quirky21
Summary: Letty's story after Fast Five. Where she finds love again after Dom abandoned her. Femslash
1. A New Beginning

A/N - I've been toying with the idea of a Letty/OC femslash for a long time. In honor of the newest installment of Fast and Furious that I'm salivating to see, I wanted to get this first chapter out and see what kind of response it gets.  
Set after Fast Five - Letty's story.  
Rated M because I like to blow shit up, fuck people over, textually caress bodies, and my characters do what I want... sometimes.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

_**A New Beginning**_

Letty was cruising down the dusty highway, wind in her hair, making great time on her way to the next town. The rumble of her car's engine was soothing, and the flavorful local music coming through the radio put a smile on her face. To be able to drive without pain once again was more than awesome. It had taken months to recover from the attempted assassination, hiding away in one abandoned place after another, filthy storerooms, cluttered garages, and tiny spaces full of dust and cobwebs.

That surgeon had been a stroke of dumb luck. He had set her broken arm, sewn her up, and let her repay the cost of his medicine, room, and board by first playing gimpy maid, then repairing and doing tune-ups on his and his neighbors' vehicles. They were family sedans, full of rust and second-hand parts, nothing exciting and more than basic work, but it was what she had needed to do, and she sure as hell wouldn't complain about it. That man, his compassionate family, and welcoming neighborhood hadn't just saved her life, they had saved her sanity.

When he had come home home one day after his shift at the local hospital, handed her a backpack, wad of cash, story about the local PD nosing about at work, and asked her to leave, she had thanked him and left. Letty had been on the run since, dodging cops and bounty hunters, both the legal kind and otherwise, scrounging for meals, and keeping her ear to the ground. She knew that Dom, Mia, and the others were alive, that they had gotten even with those drug pushing bastards and then dropped off the radar.

There were two things that still really bothered her, kept her mind reeling as she stared down the empty road.

One: why those two street punks had risked their lives to jump that Fenix guy, knocked him senseless before he could kill Letty, carried her somewhere quiet, and then disappeared. They hadn't asked her anything, shared anything about themselves, and had left her with nothing but questions. A little kid had stumbled across her some days later, half dead from dehydration and infection. He had run away and brought back his older brother, who had carried Letty to the doctor.

Two: why hadn't Dom come looking for her? He had settled the issue with the cartel, shut them down, and let himself get captured by the cops. When he had gotten out, he had gone back to stealing cars with Brian and Mia. There'd been some major heat which he had, of course, gotten out of and retired. Through the grapevine, Letty had learned he had even hooked up with a cop. Dom had forgotten about her, moved on, left her behind like a defective fuel injector. It hurt. Letty didn't have the words for how much it hurt, how much her heart stumbled and flopped, twisted and choked on the depth of her emotions, the betrayal, the loneliness, the ache that left her numb, cold, and sleepless.

She clenched her jaw and squeezed her eyes shut for a second. Angrily, she swiped at the tears on her cheeks and opened her eyes.

There was someone standing in the road.

"Fuck!" Letty slammed the brakes, swerving and drifting just in time to spin around the figure. Squealing tires, grinding sand, and flying dust filled the air until the car jerked to a stop off the road, whiplashing Letty and leaving her stunned. The engine's rumble was that only thing besides her ragged breathing that she could focus on until the sudden loud rapping at her window. Still stunned, her trembling limbs managed to put the brake on and kill the engine.

Her door opened.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" There was a woman there, leaning in, touching her shoulder, her accented English pitched high and worried.

"Yea, I think so." Voice shaky, Letty muttered, then rubbed her head and blinked until she could see clearly. The woman was a pretty gringa, wearing shorts, tank top, strappy sandals and sunglasses. Gold bangles and leather bracelets decorated her wrists, and her left bicep had an intricate dragon tattoo that disappeared into her clothes. There was a bar piercing in her left eyebrow above brown sunglasses through which Letty could just see the outline of eyes. Several more rings in her ears gleamed brightly. Her highlighted brown hair was styled in a funky bob, and a gold necklace flashed the afternoon sun into Letty's eyes. "What the hell were you doing in the road?"

"Um." The woman chewed her lip. "I was trying to flag you down." She stepped back as Letty climbed out. "My car broke down this morning, and the tow truck I called for never showed. Your car was the first I've seen all day."

It was an older Ford Focus, its red paint dusty from the roads. The mystery of a car problem had Letty itching to look it over, but she was lacking tools and parts. Given how she wanted to make time to her next paying job, she decided it was better to not even tempt herself. "Probably overheated."

"Engine temp was fine when it died. No smoke or anything. It's got a half tank of gas still. Fluid levels are all good, battery works, and I haven't found any bad fuses or loose wires either." She sighed and pouted at her car.

Letty was more than a little surprised at the feminine woman's list of efforts, and gave her another look over. Like most white girls, she was taller than Letty by a few inches. Her arms were smeared with engine grime, and there was nice muscle tone on her sweating body. The woman worked out, more than just the standard running that most white girls did. Her stance was wide, and she held herself with dignity.

"Who was the tow you called?"

"Paulo Blanco's." She spoke the name with a decent Mexican accent.

Letty snorted. "That's your problem. That idiot couldn't find the threaded end of a spark plug, let alone a pretty woman in the middle of the desert."

The woman gave her a surprised smile.

"Phone still got a charge? I'll call someone who'll actually show up."

With a relieved, brilliant smile that showed all her teeth, a phone was quickly fished from her pocket and willingly handed over. "Here. Thank you so much."

Feeling a little humble at the sincere appreciation, Letty thumbed the familiar number into the keypad. She put it to her ear and listened to the ringing. When her guy answered, she pulled in the favor he owed her.

"Jorge will be here in about an hour. He'll tow you back and give you a good discount on any labor." Letty handed back the phone. "Uh, do you want any water? I've got a cooler." She pointed back at her car.

"Cold water?"

"It better still be for the price of that cooler."

"Better than what I have. Yes, please."

Letty chuckled and reached into the back, popping open the cooler, snagging two waters, and quickly closing the lid to conserve the ice. The bottles were nicely chilled, and the crazy high price of the cooler justified. She leaned against the door and took a swig as the other woman pressed her own bottle to her flushed skin.

"Oo. That feels good." She crooned and moved the bottle to different parts until she finally opened it and swallowed a healthy amount. Smiling, she met Letty's entertained gaze. "I'm Shannon."

"Letty."

"Um. Can I be really intrusive and sit in your car? Mine's really hot."

"I haven't been running the AC."

Shannon looked away and back up. "Well, I'd like to sit near you in the shade, but the ground is probably hotter than my car."

Letty considered the request and how it was given. With the way the stranger was ducking her chin and smiling shyly, she came to the mildly startling revelation that she was being hit on. It wasn't the first time a lesbian had been attracted to her, and her confident ego was sure it wouldn't be the last. The men in the last town had mostly been crude and macho idiots who were bedmates she would soon forget. Shannon was at least turning out to be both intelligent and tactful, and Letty was flattered by the subtle attention. "Sure."

Grinning, Shannon scrambled over and hopped sideways into the driver seat. Her feet stuck out of the car, into its shadow, and the woman looked up at Letty through the rear window. She grinned widely.

Letty smiled back and decided to stay with the woman until the tow showed up. There were worse ways to spend an afternoon than with a pleasant admirer. "So, where you from?"


	2. Sparks

A/N - Hey! So excited to finally have time be able to post again. Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the glowing reviews for chapter 1! It was humbling that so many of you want to read this just because you liked something else I wrote :) and it was very encouraging to have just as many new readers. This story has a definite direction, will follow the basic storyline of Fast 6, though obviously with some hefty changes, but I don't know how long of a fic or how in depth it will be.

If any of my lovely Aussie readers would let me know if Shannon doesn't speak like a native, I'd very much appreciate it!

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**Chapter 2**

_**Sparks**_

It was just a '97 Nissan Sentra, rusty, dinged, and still full of factory standard parts, but it was her's. She spent her evenings with it, doing every little bit of maintenance the previous owner had neglected, cleaning up the filthy engine, upgrading systems to racing quality when she could, and refurbishing the original factory parts so she could sell them. The entire previous week she had spent hunting down a short in her electrical system, which had been giving her all sorts of hell since she had bought the damn thing. She even had plans to pop out the dents, get some Bondo, borrow a power sander, and rent time in a paint shop to turn the faded baby shit yellow into a vibrant orange.

Needless to say, when some stupid punk thought he could make some quick cash by breaking her window, slipping in, and trying to hijack her ride, she got a little angry. Letty ran up to the shithead still trying to hotwire her car, grabbed him by his shirt, pulled him out, and threw him into the chainlink fence of the parking lot. She reached into her back seat, picked up the breaker bar she had snagged from a dumpster that morning, turned around snarling, and swung. By a hairsbreadth, she missed the punk's head, clipping the fence and sending sparks flying.

The guy took off running, yelling about the _loca puta _chasing him. She had almost caught up with him when she was jumped by two of his _hermanos. _Her pipe flew out of her hands, clattering across the cement even as the two guys wrestled her to the ground, spit, fists, and curses flying freely. Letty managed to get in a few good hits, breaking one guy's nose and knocking out some teeth from the other before the first punk grabbed her and helped hold her down for the other two to really lay into her. Stars burst in her eyeballs as pain blossomed like unwelcome dandelion weeds in middle class white Americans' lawns, and her brain felt about ready to take a nice nap in a microwave so it could explode.

After blinking and realizing her face was comfortably laying on broken, gravel strewn concrete, Letty pushed herself up to see a fuzzy figure planting its foot in punk number one's face. The blur was holding its own against all three, spinning, punching, and dodging like Jet fucking Li. No, wait, make that two punks. One of them had landed ass first beside Letty, drooling like a sedated asylum patient and promptly passed out. Letty managed to stand and start to yell a warning to the blur when yet another thug appeared, wielding a small, yet very capable of killing the blur, handgun.

There was a brief pause and abruptly, the blur, which was sharpening into the shape of a woman, had her left side along the gun owner's right, left hand gripping his wrist, and then her right hand was breaking his jaw with a brilliant punch. The guy dropped to the ground, along with the gun, and Ms. Jet Li was back to kicking the last two thugs' asses. An unlucky pothole twisted her ankle and gave the thugs an unexpected advantage that Letty was quick to remedy.

As fast as she could, Letty swiped the gun, checked its readiness and shot out one thug's knee. Giving his _hermano,_ who was screaming and rolling, holding his destroyed knee, a brief glance, the last remaining asshole stopped and stared at Letty's slightly shaky grip on the gun. Letty sneered and jerked her head, indicating he should run before she decided to test her aim again. He ran, and Letty swayed on her feet.

A pair of hands steadied Letty, and an accented voice with an Australian lilt spoke English to her. "Those bushrangers ought to think twice now 'bout trying to steal cars from lovely women."

Letty grunted agreement after she spit a glob of blood and saliva at the piece of trash still moaning about his knee. She heard police sirens as the woman started walking them to Letty's Sentra.

"Give me your keys. I'll drive seeing as you can't barely keep it together."

"I'm not giving nobody my keys, so back the fuck off." Letty snarled at the stranger, shoving her away.

The woman sighed and steadied her as she swayed yet again, forcing Letty to consider that she might have a concussion. "You don't remember me, do you, Letty?"

They were just beside her car, the sirens closer, the punks starting to get up and hobble away, when Letty squinted at the woman's face.

"Desert road, you almost killed me when I was trying to flag you down." The Australian said.

Memories of a pleasant afternoon spent waiting for a tow invaded Letty's head. "Shannon?"

A full smile replied to that. "Ace! You do remember. Now, give me your keys unless you want to deal with the Jacks."

"Jacks?"

"Police, you bloody Yank."

Letty's legs tried to fold underneath her, causing her to curse, and then Shannon caught her by grabbing bruised ribs, making Letty cry out. "Maybe I shouldn't drive." She gasped, fished out her keys from her pocket, handed them over, and allowed Shannon to get her into the passenger side. Once Letty was strapped in, Shannon practically flew to the driver's seat, slammed her foot to the clutch, turned the ignition, and shifted into gear like a veteran. Tires squealing, they pealed away right as the cops showed up.

* * *

Dull thuds woke Letty from sleep, and her eyes fluttered open and shut several times in the dim light of an unfamiliar room. She sucked at her teeth, licked her lips, and swallowed her foul tasting spit as her mind tried to think about how she had ended up in what looked like a hotel room under the red light of a neon sign streaming into the room from around the curtains. A too deep breath had her hissing in pain from her protesting ribs. Letty began taking stock of everything that hurt, from her face to her toes, noting a massive headache, split lips, sore muscles everywhere, and ribs that lanced pain to her skull with every deep breath. Satisfied with her overview, Letty next looked to see if she was in bed alone.

Short, tangled dark hair was on the pillow beside her, with a slender neck leading down to shoulders and a dragon tattoo on the left side exposed by a dark tank top. Letty reached out, and her fingers traced the serpent's body. "Shannon," she whispered and pulled her hand back to press it against the thudding pulse in her temples. Groaning, Letty pulled herself into a sitting position on the edge of the bed. Her vision swam, and she steadied herself with one hand on the headboard.

When she could see again, she saw a glass of water, a plate of crackers, and an open bottle of ibuprofen on the bedside table. Shannon's thoughtfulness brought a smile to Letty's lips, despite the pain of the pulled scabs. Carefully, she sipped the water, popped two pills, and nibbled a couple crackers, very glad that she did not have to attempt opening the childproof bottle or rip open a plastic sleeve. Feeling slightly better a half hour later, Letty found herself staring at what she assumed to be the bathroom door.

The sound of shifting fabric, and the dipping feel of movement on the cheap mattress alerted Letty that her rescuer was awake.

"How you feelin', love?" Shannon's voice was froggy with sleep.

Hand to her ribs, Letty twisted to look over her shoulder. "Like I just got t-boned by a snot nosed, wet behind the ears racer."

Shannon combed the hair from her face and smiled. "Been in many crashes?"

"A couple." A spike of pain stole her breath, had her gasping and hunching over until gentle hands on her shoulders were carefully massaging, easing the clenched muscles. "God that feels good." Letty leaned back into the touch, eyes open, staring at the curtains, thinking of another pair of hands that used to do the same thing for her. Shannon's hands were smaller, but just as skilled. Familiar warmth blossomed in her belly, traveled south, and raised her temperature. She closed her eyes for a moment and lost herself to the sensation, reveling in the attention long denied her. When a moan tried to rise up her throat, Letty opened her eyes.

"Help me up? I gotta piss."

Legs appeared next to her, then the hands were putting her arm over pale shoulders. "Ready when you are."

Once she was moving, it wasn't so bad, and she was even able to get herself down and back up off the toilet without calling for help. A dizzy spell caught her while she was washing her hands, and luckily, she managed to grip the faucet for support and keep her feet underneath her until it passed. The mirror reflected a lot of bruises on a woman who the world didn't give two shits about. She looked away.

There was concerned knocking on the door. "You OK in there?"

Letty stumbled to it and pulled it open, glad she had not latched it because that round knob looked seriously difficult. "Fantastic."

Shannon caught her when she stumbled without the wall for support. "Couch or bed?"

"Couch." It looked closer than the bed in the lamplight that Shannon had turned on.

When they got to the piece of furniture, Letty knew she would have collapsed to it if Shannon was not there, taking almost her full weight and carefully lowering her to it instead. Letty's ribs were more than thankful.

"Are you hungry? I've got some frijoles y arroz in the mini fridge." Shannon gestured to the little appliance with a microwave sitting on it.

"Nah, but I'm thirsty."

"I have lots of water and a pineapple juice drink." Shannon offered.

"Never had pineapple juice without alcohol."

"There is a first time for everything."

Letty pursed her lips and watched the woman retrieve the can, pop the lid, and pour its contents into two cups. Sitting down, she passed one to Letty and sipped from her own. Taking a drink of the sweet juice, Letty thought about what had happened up until she passed out in the car. "Where did you learn to drive like that?"

The cup was set down on a side table. "I learned when I started doing things that ended up with me needing to disappear before the jacks showed up."

"I've heard less complicated answers that actually explained shit. You gonna tell me you boosted cars, ran drugs, or you had a super fucked up home life?"

"None of the above. I snuck into places to take photos. Factories, warehouses, airports, mansions, pretty much anything that said 'no trespassing' and would get me shot at or the police called."

Letty pictured the woman running around a noisy factory with one of those expensive, clunky things like she saw at weddings and shit sometimes. Fleeing from the cops and getting shot were subjects that she didn't feel like talking about at the moment. She changed the subject. "You looked like Michelle Yeoh earlier, tossing those pricks around. Crouching lesbian, hidden badass."

Shannon grinned shyly. "Thanks. That's the only reason I'm traveling alone. Mum put me in mixed martial arts classes when I was a little girl and refused to let me quit, even when I wanted to learn ballet. When I turned sixteen, I suddenly realized that the years of training had given me a fantastic body and a confidence that so many of my classmates lacked, so I never quit."

"Why the fuck are you traveling alone? You're too damn hot to not attract every lesbian and bi chick in Mexico. You probably have a long list of broken hearts Down Under too." Letty grinned at her dirty little joke.

The blush lighting up her cheeks was cute and expressive, but Shannon only asked a question in return. "You're a real treat for the eyes too. Why are you alone?"

"I'm not alone right now, am I?" Letty lowered herself to rest her head on a warm lap. "Turn the TV on. I'm tired."

There was a Spanish dubbed version of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull on. It made Letty laugh too much at the ridiculous voice overs of an already bad movie, and Shannon changed it to a boring soap opera. Sometime before she completely fell asleep, Letty mumbled quietly. "Thanks for saving my ass."

A soft hand pet her cheek and then her hair. "I couldn't let such a nice arse go to waste."

Letty snorted and blearily watched people scream at each other on the TV, content in a way she hadn't been since before that damn truck heist went sour.


	3. A Strange Predicament

A/N - hello hello!  
So terribly sorry for the extreme delay in this story. My RE stories and secret original fiction take precedence over this. I also blame school and work.  
Right, now that I'm done making excuses I'll tell you that I know where this story is going, it'll just take time to get there. Thank you thank you thank you to all the reader alerts, faves, and reviews! You're all amazing :D

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**Chapter 3**

_**A Strange Predicament**_

Her mind should have been on the race she was revving her engine for, but all she could think of was the strange woman she had spent the past few weeks with.

_ Over lunch, Letty thought to ask the questions she should have asked the night before. "What were you doing in those slums?"_

_ "Taking pictures."_

_ "Did you lose your camera when you went all Jackie Chan?"_

_ "No." Shannon got up, reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out a small camera. "Travel size."_

_ "The cops were already on their way when that asshole tried to jack my ride."_

_ Shannon shrugged, turned on the camera, and pointed it at Letty. "Most likely. I'm glad you had your car nearby, because I left mine here and took the bus this morning." _

_ An amused Letty watched the camera's shutter blink._

_ Looking at the image on the screen, Shannon smiled. She looked up. "Why were you there?"_

_ "Doing a job." The camera took a picture of a scowl. "How come you didn't take me to a hospital?"_

_ Shannon set the camera aside. "You seemed as eager to interact with the local law as much as I was. People like that usually don't go to hospitals."_

_ "What was wrong with your car?"_

_ "Nothing was wrong, I just didn't want..."_

_ Letty threw her sandwich wrapper at the woman. "I don't care why you took the bus. Back in the desert, what was wrong with your car?"_

_ "Bad alternator."  
Curiosity sated, Letty smiled. "Jorge took care of you."_

_ The woman nodded. "Yes."  
"Good."_

_ A bemused smile crinkled Shannon's eyes, and she took a sip of her iced drink. "I was in a bar last weekend, listening to the locals complain about some American punta who swaggered into town, all boots and attitude and a seriously ugly piece of shite car, and took all their money in a big race. That must have been you."_

_ Letty did her best to slide back in her chair, prop her gorgeous boots on the chair beside Shannon, and put as much smug pride in her expression as possible. "You bet your fuckin ass that was me."_

The bimbo in the tiny outfit dropped her arms, her tits popping out of the tight pink bra they had been squeezed into. Letty rolled her eyes and slammed her car into gear, heard the erotic roar of her engine, and enjoyed the rush as she was smooshed back into her seat. A quarter mile down the road, Letty won because the other two drivers had been as distracted by the bimbo's tits as she had been by thoughts of Shannon. More half-naked women, the curves of their ass exposed by hoochie mama shorts and mini skirts, bounced around and screamed cheerfully, but most seemed confused by the sight of Letty winning.

A few sidled up to her anyway, whispering what Letty could do with the money in her ears. She counted her stacks of cash, tipped the friendly bastard who had gotten her into the race, and blew a kiss to the losers skulking around the perimeter. More politely than she had ever treated skanks before, Letty brushed the touchy women away. "Sorry ladies, I don't swing that way."

_Shannon had that look about her, that look Letty was very familiar with. It was the look that skanks were always giving Dom, that hungry, almost desperate glint on their cosmetic caked faces, leaning in close, smelling him, feeling his heat, and moaning when he smiled down at them. Back in L.A., Letty would have postured and said something nasty to scare off the leeches, then berated her gorgeous man for leading them on. No, she took that back, the look that Shannon was giving Letty wasn't horny and greedy with intentions as see-through as their tops._

_ How Shannon was leaning in her direction, breathing deeply, and wearing a light flush in her cheeks was almost cute. The way she seemed torn about her inner thoughts was endearing. It was more than obvious that Shannon was attracted to Letty, and the honesty with which the Aussie treated her was pleasant. If a man had treated Letty half as respectfully, complimented her a third as enthusiastically, or even made a fraction of the effort that Shannon did, he would have gotten an invitation to her bed._

_ Letty took a heavy breath, inhaling her companion's perfume and exhaling noisily. At that moment, she wished with everything she had that Shannon was a Shane. Feeling the woman's heat as she leaned in, seeming to have come to a decision about something, Letty stood, grunting out a little huff as her ribs protested. "Want another beer?"_

_ With her head in the fridge, hiding from Shannon's disappointment, Letty stared longer than she needed to, long enough that she didn't notice footsteps coming to her side. "Letty?"_

_ "Ow! Fuck." Letty hissed at having snapped upright too quickly. Gentle fingers touched her arm, and she turned to meet concerned brown eyes. "Don't look at me like that. I ain't a fragile china doll."_

_ "No. You aren't." Shannon's hand began drifting up._

_ Letty looked at her feet, feeling strange at how she didn't want to tell Shannon what she knew she should, feeling even weirder that she didn't want to see hurt in those pretty eyes. She knew as well as anyone the pain that rejection could cause._

_ "Letty?"_

_ She grit her teeth._

_ The hand stilled. "In the past few days we've spent a lot of time together, and I've learned a couple things about you, Letty. You are remarkably intelligent despite your crass language. You're very talented with your hands and hide a beautiful woman under all that engine grease and fearsome scowls."_

_ Letty's jaw fought between a smile and a sad frown._

_ "You don't back down from a fight. When you don't want to talk about something, you change the subject. Your silence is scaring me a bit right now, love. Did I do something wrong?" Shannon finished quietly._

_ "No!" Letty's head snapped up as she barked out her response. "No. You're, you're..."_

_ There were tears shining in those eyes. "I'm what?"_

_ "Shit. You're one of the most, the best..." Cursing her horrible skill at expressing herself, Letty sighed. "You're amazing, and I wish you were a guy."_

_ Shannon's lips twisted, pressed together, opened, twisted again, and her eyebrows did a weird little dance of their own too. The hand dropped away. "Carajo."_

_ "I'm sorry." Apologizing for something she had no control over, Letty silently laughed a little to herself. Not even Mia would believe it, and she was the one who usually saw Letty's gentle side._

_ Soft chuckles pulled her from her reverie. "You are something else."_

_ "Am I?" Playful growl or plaintive grunt, Letty wasn't sure exactly what had just come out of her mouth._

_ Shannon tucked a strand of curls behind Letty's ear, leaned down and pressed her lips to a warm cheek. "You are."_

Letty tossed back a few drinks at the local club and eyed the men with their shirts mostly unbuttoned, chest hair and carved pecs on display. After a fourth round of shots, she gave up trying to convince herself to fuck a stranger and slipped onto the dance floor. In the heat of moving bodies, she lost herself, not caring who she danced with or what hands were doing. Not until some guy thought he had won her for the night and was possessively grinding his hardon into her ass that she was brought from her nice drunken haze. It was exactly the kind of attention she always liked from Dom, that cool display of strength and masculinity, pressing his hard length along her, showing her how much he wanted to be in her.

The man with his hands on her pissed her off. She whirled around, his wrist in her hand, and twisted it angrily. Under the neon lights and heavy bass, she didn't hear it pop nor his grunt of pain, but she saw it on his face and hated herself a little for it. Up until her mood swing, she hadn't given any indication he should stop. Without a destination in mind, she stomped off the dance floor, pushed through the crowd at the door, and exploded out into the night. Behind her, angry calls sounded, which she responded to with a solid finger. A taxi pulled up, dropped off a stoned looking couple, and Letty dropped into it, telling the driver to take her home.

She checked on her car when she got there, more than glad that she had dropped it off before heading out for the night. The cost of the garage with its sturdy door and locks was outrageous, but she wasn't going to complain too loudly. Her landlord didn't ask questions and let her pay cash. That, and the fact that the man respected her privacy, was what kept Letty in the creepy part of Mexico City. Inside her sardine can of an apartment, she stripped and stepped into the claustrophobic shower stall. Cold water jolted the last of her buzz out of her.

Dried off and no longer smelling of sweat, booze, and gasoline, she crawled into bed, hugging a mangled pillow to her chest. Her face pressed into it, she could almost smell Shannon's perfume.

_"Are you quite sure you want me to stay with you?"_

_ "That place you're in now is a complete shit hole. My apartment doesn't have roaches."_

_ Shannon was looking at the bed in the corner. It was about ten feet away from the little kitchenette and ten feet from the bathroom and ten feet from the front door. There was also a table with a sketchpad, pencils, eraser rubs, and a few other drafting instruments scattered about. The chair had a pair of work pants draped over it. Otherwise, the room was extremely tidy. All of her clothes were stored in the little dresser, empty dinner cartons were in the trash, and her few dishes were sitting clean on the drying rack. Even the bed was made._

_ Dom had always enjoyed a clean house and workspace as well. No one ever left the garage without putting away their tools and taking care of any fluid spills. Every week before the Sunday barbeque, Dom, Mia, and Letty would spent a few hours cleaning. Roaches were not tolerated in the Toretto house, garage, or store._

_ "Your flat is tiny."_

_ Leaning against the wall, Letty cocked her head up at the taller woman. "Don't tell you're going to pass up the chance to sleep in a sexy woman's bed."_

_ Shannon took a moment before she turned to Letty. Many more passed before she spoke in a carefully calm tone. "You're straight. I'm a lesbian. We barely know anything about each other. Why?"_

_ Outside, the street lights began to click on. Down the street, a dog started barking._

_ "I don't want to be alone." Letty's arms crossed over her stomach._

_ "You know I'm attracted to you. I tend to cuddle with whoever is in my bed and love to admire beautiful bodies. Given enough rum, I'll probably try to taste your lips." Shannon argued._

_ Letty dropped her arms, stood with her shoulders back, and spoke softly, leaving herself open and vulnerable in a way that terrified her. "I trust you." She swallowed._

_ "Fuck." Shannon swayed on her feet, thrust out a hand to steady herself on the wall. Desire was plain on her face. Letty wanted to hug her with a passion born of her unwanted loneliness. The depth of her quick attachment to the foreigner confused her, made her frown and wrinkle her brow. She became lost in her focus, trying to dissect the strange predicament, and jumped slightly when Shannon's arms were abruptly pulling her close. "I could get used to the smell of oil and gas."_

_ Tears escaped Letty's eyes, and she wrapped her own arms around her new friend's waist._

Letty choked on a sob, not sure if she missed Dom or Shannon more.


End file.
